Soni Wolf, who founded Dykes on Bikes and fought to protect its name, dies

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Soni Wolf, a founding member of Dykes on Bikes who had been named community grand marshal at the upcoming San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade in June, died before she got a chance to make one last motorcycle ride up Market Street.

Wolf died April 25 of complications of pneumonia and pulmonary disease at Seton Medical Center in Daly City. She was 69. Her death was confirmed by her friend Brooke Oliver, attorney for the San Francisco Dykes on Bikes Women’s Motorcycle Contingent, as it is officially called.

“Dykes on Bikes manifests the unequivocal demand that now is the time for liberation and free expression,” said mayoral candidate and former state Sen. Mark Leno. “Soni was a bold and indefatigable leader who led by example.”

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That example was set at the Gay Freedom Day Parade in 1978. Wolf, an Air Force medic who had relocated to San Francisco after her discharge, was among a small group of lesbians who decided to ride their motorcycles in the parade. So that their bikes wouldn’t overheat idling behind marchers, they moved to the front of the procession.

They revved their Harleys and Indians and rolled. Somewhere along the route, someone in the group or in the watching crowd called them “Dykes on Bikes.” A Chronicle reporter picked up on it, and the name appeared in print. Nobody knows to this day who coined the phrase “Dykes on Bikes,” but everybody knows who ran with the nickname, protected it, and fought for it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States twice.

“Soni was the founding mother of Dykes on Bikes,” Oliver said. “She was the inspiration and the mentor that allowed Dykes on Bikes to flourish all over the world.”

According to Oliver, Wolf grew up in Rhode Island and joined the Air Force during the Vietnam War. She served as a medic, treating wounded combat veterans at a hospital in Texas. Her discharge papers identify her as Soni S.H.S. Wolf, a name she had adopted during her time in the service.

“She never told anyone what S.H.S. stood for,” Oliver said, “and she never talked about her time in the service because the treatment of the vets coming back from war had been so traumatic for her.”

In San Francisco, Wolf settled in the Castro district, finding work managing copy centers for brokerages and law firms.

With each passing Pride Parade, the Dykes on Bikes contingent at the front became bigger and bolder. There have been more than 400 riders in some parades. Leading the way for 40 years was Wolf in her leather vest bearing the triangular Dykes on Bikes logo and chaps.

“When it came to treating all people with respect and dignity, she had no patience for anything less,” Leno said.

Dykes on Bikes grew to 16 chapters and thousands of members throughout the United States, Britain and Australia. Wherever there is a Pride Parade, Dykes on Bikes are at the head of the pack.

A Wisconsin woman saw the marketing potential in this and decided to launch a clothing line called “Dykes on Bikes,” and Wolf was not flattered by the news.

“That’s not what we’re about,” she told The Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli in 2005. “That word (dyke) has been used for years to tear us down. And we said, ‘OK, we’re going to take it back.’”

That decision led to years of court battles. Twice, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected the Dykes’ application, on the grounds that “dyke” is vulgar, offensive and “scandalous.” Patent office attorneys even pointed to Webster’s dictionary, which says dyke is “often used disparagingly.”

Dykes on Bikes took the fight to court. Two dozen experts testified that the group’s use had changed “Dykes on Bikes” from an epithet to a rallying cry for lesbian dignity.

With Oliver as lead pro bono attorney and Wolf as primary witness for the applicant, the case took five years as it made its way through three levels to the Supreme Court.

In 2007, the high court declined to hear the case, rendering a decision in favor of protecting the name Dykes on Bikes in the court of appeals binding.

“It rhymes,” Wolf said of her fierce defense of the name. “Just kind of rolls off the tongue.”

Then it took another 10 years in court to protect the logo. This time the Supreme Court heard oral arguments. The battle was finally won in January, when the court upheld their right to trademark the logo.

By then, Wolf was in the hospital at the start of her decline, never to ride again. She had moved from the Castro to Pacheco in Contra Costa County.

As one of six community grand marshals for Pride, Wolf will be represented at this year’s parade on June 24 by the painted gas tank from her bike, riding in a convertible at the front. After the parade, there will be a memorial to Wolf on the main stage in front of City Hall.

“Soni was a treasured member of the Pride family,” said George F. Ridgely Jr., executive director of San Francisco Pride. “She encouraged us all to live as loud as the motorcycles that lead the Pride Parade every year.”